Dark, Twisted and Time Turned

Chapter 36: Dinner

The group of them were in elation for weeks. The pride and knowledge that they had found a pattern that the Ministry had not, and aided in the effort to predict the attacks, was something that anyone would be proud of- particularly 10 kids who's talents and hard work are generally not seen before their families and money.

And just as their pride was beginning to wear out, elegant, cream coloured invitations were delivered to them early Thursday morning in March.

"Now I know it's been a few weeks now, but I have managed to get a few notable figures from the Ministry to come down and join us for dinner. A few Arithmancers, some of the junior Aurors that arent as swamped as the others. Miss Granger and Mr. Lestrange, I heard you were interested in applying to Tuskamon, so I convinced a friend of mine, one of the administrators to come join us, as well as a few others." Slughorn had said upon delivering the invitations. This meant Hermione and Perseus were through the roof with excitement, and Chyllie was excited to meet the Arithmancers.

"Oh, darling, I can't wait." Hermione had murmured to Abraxas that afternoon. "This is my chance to get into the university!" He grins down at her.

"I know, I'm excited for you." His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, leaving his forearm wrapped in a white bandage as it usually was, including when they had sex. She reaches out to touch it and he snatches his arm away, then immediately looks sheepish. The movement did not escape the view of their friends, and espessially not Tom. Abraxas begins to roll down his sleeves.

"Don't." Tom suddenly says, and Abraxas immediately halts and looks at Tom, confused. Several of the others do as well. "Keeping mine covered ruined my relation with Rigil. Yes, Rigil Harris. We were seeing each other for awhile." No one says anything but Carnell.

"I'm sorry to hear you had a falling out." Tom acknowledges him with a nod.

"Thank you for that. You might as well show her, Abraxas. She's to find out soon enough, especially considering we have long since discontinued meetings." Abraxas hesitates a moment, before he begins to unwrap the long bandages around his forearm. As Hermione watches, black ink is revealed, first revealing the head of the snake, and then the skull it's twisted with. Different than the one from Voldemort's rise, this one has the snake entering the eye socket and exiting the mouth, and a forked tongue, the fork suspiciously shaped as a 7. Impaled through the head of the skull is a sword.

"We all have one, Hermione." Abraxas murmurs, delicately touching the dark ink. "We had been a club, we practiced the Dark Arts, we made sure we got what we wanted. In the beginning, it was about purifying the wizarding world, removing Muggleborns. But it drifted from that. It simply became practicing magic, finding abandoned spells, using old, ancient and powerful magic. And then it ceased to exist." The others were unwrapping their bandages now, revealing 6 identical black marks.

"There's more of us with it." Tom says. "It was all my idea. Mulciber has it. Parkinson, Greengrass, Avery. And now look at us," He laughs. "We've started a group in order to put a stop to these villages being destroyed."

Hermione lift's Abraxas's arm and kisses the mark. "Do you still practice the magic?"

"Yes." He breathes, "Yes, we do. The Ministry is allowing Aurors to use Unforgivables if necessary to stop Grindelwald. We believe no magic should be banned from use. Perhaps not taught, but not banned. If absolutely necessary to use... There is no Dark Magic, Hermione. There is no dark and light. It is called Dark because it is simply more powerful. It's called Dark Arts for a reason. Because it's a beautiful, dangerous magic."

"Then I see no fault in that." Hermione responds, and the concept of dark magic and the Dark Mark was never discussed again.

~*~

"Hi-dee-ho." Carnell mutters, as the ten of them meet in the hall outside Slughorn's office. They could hear subtle laughter and some light conversation in the room beyond, however they were to wait until their professor came to fetch them. "My, Chyllie, you look swell." She smiles at him, and Theon mimes throwing up in the background.

"And you're an absolute dish." Abraxas says to Hermione, who beams at him. "I particularly love your hair." He runs a curl through his fingers. "You don't wear curls often."

"I thought it would look nice with my skirt." Hermione replies.Her black skirt was a cute little thing she had bought for herself around Christmas, with fat, happy white polkadots on it, and her creme coloured shirt was tucked into it, with a large and elegant flopping collar. She had attempted curls for the evening, and paired red lipstick with it. It was her attempt at being casual, as well as formal enough for the dinner this evening. The door opens, and Slughorn pokes his head out to gesture them inside.

Once within, a partially filled, long wooden table was at the centre of the room, with several regal looking witches and wizards at the far end.

"Aurors Susan Crickerly and Arjun Yadav-" Slughorn gestures to the man and woman in matching robes. From the look of them, 20, 21. Probably having just completed their three year training. "Arithmancers Song Li, Ewan Dawlish, and Percival Prickle." The three, considerably older, were all silent, but gave them a nod. Prickle put his teeth back in his mouth. "And of course, the administrator for Tuscamon, Jacob Cote." The man, in fine robes, barely acknowledged them.

As they moved to sit, Slughorn said each of their names. "Carnell Rosier, Cyriss Mulciber, Chyllie and Theon Nott, Abraxas Malfoy, Tom Riddle, Hermione Granger, Perseus Lestrange, Davante Dolohov, and Fleetwood Avery." Chyllie moves to sit across from the Arithmancers, while Perseus made an effort to sit closer to Jacob Cote.

"A very impressive group of characters you have here, Horace." Madam Li remarks, glancing around at them. "Many recognizable names." Chyllie, who had previously been beaming and practically bouncing in her seat, seemed to deflate at the woman's words. Theon notices his sister's sudden disappointment.

"Actually, Madam, our names have nothing to do with why Professor Slughorn arranged this. We solved the patterns in the Grindelwald attacks, namely my sister, using Arithmancy and Runes." he says, bordering on the edge of rudely. As the Arithmancers turned their curious attentions to Chyllie, the food was served- pheasant, a veal and truffle stew, salmon, several marinated or grilled vegetables, and sweet rolls.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Nott, but did you say you had solved the patterns?" Auror Crickerly asks, sipping on the broth of her stew. "Do you by any chance have them with you? I'd love to see them."

"Sorry, Auror, we sent them to the Ministry two weeks ago. As soon as we solved it, we confirmed it all with Professors Slughorn and Dumbledore and immediately sent it off. We thought it ought to be reviewed as quick as possible." Mulciber answers, and Crickerly and Yadav look at each other.

"Nothing of the sort has come to the Ministry that we've heard of." Yadav mutters, his accented voice making the words deep. "Perhaps you sent it to the wrong place- what a disaster that would be." The table was silent now, all looking between the Aurors and the students.

"No, no, they gave it directly to Professor Dumbledore who sent it through his Floo. You ought to have it." Slughorn answers.

"Perhaps it is a top secret thing. We do not yet have very high security clearance, so we may not have heard for a reason." Yadav replies, and returns to conversing with Rosier. As Hermione and Perseus make light conversation with Cote, a storm begins to brew in the back of her mind. Those documents at the ministry, and some of the only Aurors left in office haven't heard of them? Next to impossible. There is no reason for the map and papers to be top secret. The only way it is unknown is if the documents had never made it there. As thus, a suspicion was forming, and she could tell she wasn't the only one at the table unsettled.

A/N
Hi, I'm sorry fo the late update. I'm going through a really rough breakup from someone I was sure I'd spend the rest of my life with. It was very sudden and there was really no indication until I got the text. Please remember to comment, I love comments and I'm really looking for something to cheer me up. They were the love of my life, and I thought I was theirs too. I guess I was wrong.

XOXO
QueenOfClass